Derek McInnes must fill the trophy room at his first attempt if he is to lead Rangers into a second campaign, after a desperately poor start to his time in charge at Ibrox left the side already trailing Celtic by five points after only three games.
A 1-0 win away to Aberdeen gave him some badly needed breathing space, but the former Aberdeen manager knows that recording his first top-flight win will not do much to alter the bigger picture. He is acutely aware of the demands and expectations of the job, and unlike several of his predecessors he was not deluded into thinking there ought to be some sort of amnesty during periods of radical change.
Collateral damage from early results
The horror story run of opening results against Dundee United, Hibs, Jagiellonia Bialystok and Jablonec has inflicted considerable collateral damage to his reputation. Having been eliminated from back-to-back European competitions, he is already in a vulnerable position with his support base dwindling rapidly.
Yesterday's victory in the north east will keep the wolves from the door for now. The travelling support will have appreciated the blood, sweat and tears approach from a group of players who went out there in order to fight for their manager.
No distractions from the obvious
McInnes worked that out before naming his starting XI. He realised the need to surround himself with players in whom he can place his trust. There are now no distractions from the obvious, nor any excuses to be thrown up along the way by long flights and hostile midweek away days around the continent. The remit is now crystal clear.
He might benefit from all the turmoil created by managerial turnover over the past few years. There is at least now a widely held acceptance that Rangers must attempt to move towards a more sustainable, stable and structured future. But that will only wash for as long as there is a belief that the right man is driving the club forward.
Endorsement from Walter Smith
The late great Walter Smith was among the first to identify McInnes as a Rangers manager in waiting and to champion him for the job. At this early, fraught point, McInnes should take enormous comfort from that endorsement just as his critics ought to give it due consideration.
McInnes is in a rush to implement so many changes to his squad before the end of the current transfer window. He will have realised he might only get two of them to carry out the work required, and maybe only just the one if results do not improve quickly.
He has made an assessment of the limitations and weaknesses of this group of players, and has decided that, if he is to make the most of this opportunity, he needs to take radical and drastic action to start over with a blank canvas. That is why seven new recruits were named in his line-up yesterday and why there will be further ins and outs over the next few days.
McInnes is attempting to recalibrate an entire squad from the ground up because too many of the players he inherited became serial losers for far too long. They had developed a habit for settling for second prizes until last season, when they came third in a two-horse race. That was the campaign which, in the eyes of the club's American owners, copper-bottomed McInnes' credentials as the right man to overhaul a culture of underachievement.
McInnes has not made it onto solid ground just yet, but he will hope the journey to such a safe place began yesterday, back at the ground he once called home.
